CORONAVIRUS | All court hearings nationwide from tomorrow until March 31 will be postponed in line with the government’s restricted movement order to contain the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.
However, remand applications for criminal cases at the magistrate’s courts will still be held during the nationwide two-week restricted movement period.
Federal Court Chief Registrar Ahmad Terrirudin Mohd Salleh issued the directive to all registrars of the Federal Court, Court of Appeal, High Courts of Malaya, Lower Courts of Malaya and the Lower Courts of Sabah and Sarawak via email this afternoon.
According to the e-mail, the decision was made following discussion with the chief justice regarding last night’s restricted movement announcement by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
“For all trials and hearings of civil and criminal cases for the period from March 18, 2020, until March 31 2020, are postponed and the fixing of new trial/hearing dates will be informed later,” the e-mail stated.
The online document stated that case management of criminal cases at the Federal Court and Court of Appeal level are postponed during the affected period and that a new date for case management will be informed to parties later.
The e-mail stated that filing of new civil suits and related court filings as well as civil matter case management vie e-filing (a form of teleconferencing) will still proceed as normal, while the filing of cause papers in civil matters not involving e-filing will only resume on April 1.
“Civil case management via e-Review will proceed as normal online, while case management via manual (method) will be postponed and a new date will be fixed,” the e-mail stated.
It also stated that the applications for remand from the lower criminal courts of suspects under Sections 117 and 259 of the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as remand applications under the Immigration Act 1959/1963, will resume as normal during the affected period.
The e-mail also stated that if there is a need to register a new criminal case at the lower courts, then the Investigating Officer has to earlier inform the Sessions Court judges and magistrates, among others.
It is understood that as the email has been sent out to all court registrars nationwide today, then the RM2.28 billion 1MDB trial of former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak before Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah will be vacated from Thursday and Friday this week as well as other dates slated for this month.- Mkini
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